Large cranes, such as in particular crawler cranes, are dismantled into individual parts for transport. Accordingly, the crane is disassembled for transport. There are obtained various transport units, which possibly can be moved in road traffic by using special transport vehicles. The regulations applicable for transport relate for instance to the weight or also to the dimensions.
Depending on weight and dimension, the crane thus is dismantled into a plurality of parts, for instance into the uppercarriage and various parts of the undercarriage, and into the respective equipment parts. If a crane must now be transported, in which for instance both the uppercarriage and the middle part of the frame of the undercarriage reach the maximum weights admissible in road traffic, it becomes necessary to separately transport the rotary joint arranged between the uppercarriage and the middle part of the frame of the undercarriage with the associated drives.
The object of the present disclosure now consists in providing a rotary joint of the generic type for a crane, in particular a crawler crane, which quickly, easily and reliably can be connected both with the undercarriage and with the uppercarriage of the crane and can again be released from the same, in order to be able to be transported separately.
In accordance with the present disclosure, this object is solved by a rotary joint for rotatable connection of the uppercarriage with the undercarriage of a crane, wherein the rotary joint can be connected with the uppercarriage on the one hand and the undercarriage on the other hand via a quick-release coupling. Accordingly a rotary joint is provided for rotatable connection of the uppercarriage with the undercarriage of a crane, wherein this rotary joint can each be connected with the uppercarriage on the one hand and the undercarriage on the other hand via a quick-release coupling, in accordance with the present disclosure.
Due to this separability of the rotary joint both from the uppercarriage and from the undercarriage in accordance with the present disclosure, a good transportability and in particular a reduction of the transport weights of the individual components of the large crane can be achieved. In addition, the individual assemblies of the crane can optimally be configured, in order to achieve very high lifting capacities of the crane. Via the quick-release coupling, safe and fast assembly or disassembly of the rotary joint is possible.
Accordingly, the rotary joint preferably constitutes a roller rotary joint. Such roller rotary joints can absorb very high lifting capacities.
The drive advantageously is formed of a plurality of hydraulic drive units, which according to a particularly advantageous aspect of the present disclosure are connected with each other such that only the entirety of the drives must be connected with the hydraulic lines of the uppercarriage. This reduces the assembly time, since it is not necessary to connect each individual drive with hydraulic lines of the uppercarriage.
Advantageously, the rotary joint constitutes a circular slewing ring. For coupling the undercarriage and/or for coupling the uppercarriage, two circular opposed webs each can be provided here, in which bolts uniformly distributed around the periphery can pluggably be received, in order to provide a bolt connection with a mounting flange of the undercarriage or the uppercarriage, which can be received between the webs. The quick-release coupling is formed thereby.
Particularly advantageously, the inserted bolts each can be lockable via a bolt locking device, which contributes to the operational safety of the crane. Further details and advantages of the present disclosure will be explained in detail with reference to an embodiment illustrated in the drawing, which are drawn approximately to scale.